On Saturday, a 7.1 Magnitude Earthquake struck in New Zealand, centered around the City of Christchurch. There was significant damage, but luckily only two serious injuries were reported and no fatalities.

• Photos: Damage from New Zealand Earthquake - Source: Geology.com
• Amazing New Zealand Earthquake - Source: Ontario-geofish
• Buildings collapse, 2 injured in powerful NZ quake - Source: Yahoo! News
• Canterbury New Zealand M7.2 earthquake Sept. 4 2010 - Source: Arrowsmith blog
• Magnitude 7.0 - SOUTH ISLAND OF NEW ZEALAND - Source: USGS
• New Zealand quake hits beer supplies at major brewery - Source: AFP
• New Zealand Earthquake Visualized in Google Earth - Source: Mashable.com
• GeoNet article: Sep 7 2010 - Darfield earthquake damages Canterbury - Source: GeoNet
  GeoNet is an organization that exists to operate a geological hazard monitoring system for New Zeland.
• Slideshow - Earthquake shakes New Zealand - Source: Reuters

PITTSBURGH, PA – August 17, 2010 – Nicholson Construction Company is pleased to announce the opening of new offices in Austin, TX and Overland Park, KS (Kansas City). The Texas office will enhance Nicholson’s service to its Texas and Gulf Coast customers and the Kansas City office will strengthen Nicholson’s Midwestern presence. The two offices are now fully-operational with engineering, project management, and field operations resources available.

[Editor] Click through for the rest of this press release from GeoPrac.net Sponsor Nicholson Construction. [/Editor]

At last month's Earth Retention Conference, ER2010, there were many references to the second ER conference in 1990. One paper from that proceedings that garnered many mentions and was referenced by several at this year's conference as a seminal paper was by Dr. G. Wayne Clough and Thomas D. O'Rourke entitled 'Construction induced movement of insitu walls'. I found it somewhat poetic that a recent issue of Geocomp's newsletter described the monitoring of deformations of the temporary shoring for the Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Geocomp performed the monitoring using multiple Leica automated motorized total stations (AMTS) with reflective prism targets along with their iSiteCentral software to ensure no deformation-induced damage to the adjacent historic library structure. [Source: Geocomp Newsletter. Image: Geocomp]

Groundwater from the Nevada Test Site, location of numerous nuclear test explosions, could eventually migrate 50 miles to Ash Springs, a haven for 24 unique plant and animal species. The 10,000 gpm springs were sampled and the water chemistry was anaylzed to determine the source of the water in an area that averages around 4-in of rain per year. The results indicate that the source is near the Nevada Test Site, and the water takes some 15,000 years to travel approximately 50-miles along a fault zone. The study authors are Michelle Bushman and Professor Steve Nelson. [Source: BYU via National Driller Magazine. Image: BYU]

• China: Three Gorges Dam's image showing some cracks - Source: latimes.com via ASCE SmartBrief
  After the serious flooding in China this summer, Chinese officials have downgraded the design flood that they expect the dam to be witheld.

  In 2003, officials boasted that the dam could withstand the worst flood in 10,000 years. In 2007, the estimate was reduced to 1,000 years. In 2008, it was dropped yet again, this time to just 100 years.

• ASU's Arrowsmith: 'big one' is overdue in California - Source: Arizona Geology
• URS Insurers To Pay $52.4M In Settlement Over Bridge Collapse - Source: WSJ.com via AGC SmartBrief
• Geotechnical contractor Bachy Soletanche is using a storm water shaft, with deep diaphragm walls and cased secant piling, on a project for United Utilities - Source: Plant Engineer
• Earthquake safety measures in San Diego: How San Diego is preparing for the big one - Source: San Diego News Room via ASCE SmartBrief
• Issue 4, Volume 1, International Journal of Geoengineering Case Histories - Source: IJGCH via Geoengineer.org
• Physical, mental ordeal awaits trapped miners in Chile - Source: CNN.com via Geology.com
• Tour of the proposed Belo Monte Dam Complex in the Brazilian Amazon - Source: Google Earth Blog

The folks at the ASTM Committee on Concrete and Concrete Aggregate have been very busy recently.  The past month has seen a whole slew of new and revised standards on concrete sampling and testing.  Be sure to check it out if you are in the CQA biz.

In the foundation and basement excavation for the Vehicle Security Center at the World Trade Center cite, an 18th century cargo ship was discovered approximately 20- to 30-ft below street level. It was likely a type of vessel known as a Brigantine, a work-horse of the coastal trade that may have travelled as far North as New England for lumber and as far South as Barbados to pick up sugar and mollasses.

Geotechnical specialty contractor Nicholson Construction (a GeoPrac.net sponsor) is a member of the joint venture constructing the foundations system. From the National Driller Magazine, Foundation Report email newsletter:

Nicholson, with joint venture partner E.E. Cruz, constructed the Vehicle Security Center's perimeter foundation walls. The water-tight excavation support system includes 40,000 square feet diaphragm wall, 6,000-square-foot secant pile wall, and a jet grout cutoff wall. Nicholson currently is installing tieback anchors to support the foundation walls. The joint venture's $41 million contract also includes the excavation of 160,000 cubic yards of rock, soil, and miscellaneous materials. The project is scheduled to be complete in late August.

I'm guessing that schedule might be delayed somewhat now! There is a really neat 360-degree panarama of the efforts to catalog and recover the ship at the site. [Source: NYTimes.com. Image: National Driller Foundations Report Newsletter]

MISSION WOODS, Kan., Aug. 25, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Layne Christensen Company ("Layne") (Nasdaq:LAYN) today announced the acquisition of a 50% interest in Diberil Sociedad Anonima, a Uruguayan company and parent company to Costa Fortuna (Brazil and Uruguay). Costa Fortuna, with operations in Sao Paulo, Brazil and Montevideo, Uruguay, is one of the largest providers of specialty foundation and specialized marine geotechnical services in South America. Layne has mineral exploration operations already in Brazil and sees the expansion of its geotechnical construction business into this market as a very strategic opportunity. Costa Fortuna, with 250 employees, produced approximately $25 million in revenue and $4.5 million in earnings before interest, income taxes, depreciation and amortization for the year ended December 31, 2009. Layne's investment for its 50% interest included the purchase of shares from individuals for $10.1 million and the purchase of shares directly from Diberil for $4.8 million resulting in, net of Layne's interest in Diberil, an economic investment of $12.5 million. Subsequent to the acquisition, both shareholders contributed $1.25 million in cash for working capital. In addition, and as part of this transaction, Diberil purchased from Layne 100% of the stock of Layne GeoBrazil for $4.8 million. Layne will record activity from its investment in Diberil as equity in earnings of affiliates.

[Editor] Click through for the rest of the press release. [/Editor]

GEO-SLOPE International, makers of the GeoStudio 2007 geotechnical software suite have announced a version 7.17 update for their GeoStudio 2007 software products, which includes SLOPE/W, SIGMA/W and SEEP/W, QUAKE/W and others. This release is mainly a fix for licensing issues with Windows 7 and Windows Vista.

From GeoStudio Current News. If you are interested, read about the full list of changes in GeoStudio 2007 Version 7.17.

• Connecticut Worker killed drilling soil borings - Source: NBC Connecticut
• Landslides strike Zhouqu County, China - Source: Boston.com
• Death toll from NW China mudslide rises to 1,270; 474 still missing - Source: Xinhua via USGS Landslide Events
• Staying Current with Conferences and Geosynthetics - Source: geosynthetica.net
• GMA responds to EPA on coal ash issue - Source: Geosynthetics Magazine
• Rescuers search for 90 missing in latest China landslide as heavy rains loom on horizon - Source: Washington Examiner via USGS Landslide Events
• La. levees are still not ready to provide 100-year storm protection - Source: NOLA.com via ASCE SmartBrief
• Engineering landfills to save money, resources - Source: ASU News
• Landslide in Zhouqu, China - Source: NASA
• Chilean Miners Face Four Months Underground as Rescuers Drill Escape Hole - Source: Bloomberg
  

  Chile is preparing to start drilling a hole to retrieve 33 miners trapped in an underground mine for more than two weeks after they were found alive yesterday.

My colleage Robert Thompson at Dan Brown and Associates has posted about the World Record O-Cell test they were involved in on the new Mississippi River Bridge for I-70 in St. Louis, Missouri. The new record load is 36,000 tons, eclipsing the previous record of 32,000 tons set in Korea in 2005. This test was recently featured in ENR Magazine as well, and Civil Engineering Magazine before that. [Source: Dan Brown and Associates, PLLC. Image: ENR]

Magco was the drilled shaft subcontractor for Hansel Phelps Construction on two separate contracts on the Terminal 4 Project at the Phoenix Sky Harbour Airport. In this very nicely written article, the numerous material, equipment, logistical and other challenges on the project are described, including fighting the sand, gravel and cobbles (known locally as the SGC) from the Salt River. Pockets of Boulders were also encountered along with relatively shallow groundwater. Perhaps one of the biggest challenges was drilling and constructing the shafts with limited space and overhead clearance. I should also acknowledge my colleagues at Gannett Fleming who were involved in geotechnical and structural design on the project. [Source: GeoDrilling International. Image: Hensel Phelps Construction]